Отрывок из книги
Samuel Griswold Goodrich
Virgil, Seneca, Attila, Nero, Cicero, Julius Caesar, Hannibal, Alexander, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Plato, Socrates, Democritus, Pericles, Aesop
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The ceremony was in the highest degree imposing. The triumphal procession marched from the house of Belisarius to the hippodrome,2 filled with exulting thousands, where Justinian and Theodora sat enthroned. Among the Vandal captives, Gelimer was distinguished by the purple of a sovereign. He shed no tears, but frequently repeated the words of Solomon, "Vanity of vanities: all is vanity." When he reached the imperial throne, and was commanded to cast aside the ensigns of royalty, Belisarius hastened to do the same, to show him that he was to undergo no insult as a prisoner, but only to yield the customary homage of a subject. We may pause for a moment to reflect upon the caprices of fortune, which had raised a comedian, in the person of Theodora, to see the successor of Genseric and Scipio prostrate as slaves before her footstool.
Both the conqueror and captive experienced the effects of imperial generosity. The former received a large share of the spoil as his reward, and was named consul for the ensuing year. To the Vandal monarch, an extensive estate in Galatia was assigned, to which he retired, and, in peaceful obscurity, spent the remainder of his days.
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